Since the 15th Century the village was known by two German names : Wilmeshau Wilmesdorf. The place name was subject to many changes until the 18th Century when the name Wilmesau prevailed. Due to endogamy and the geographical isolation of the village lying inside the Polish language area of Bielsko-Biala the local language developed as a distinct regional dialect, which was used until the Second World War in everyday life.

After the war almost all the Germans were driven out of the area and the village was renamed Wilamowice, the residents of Wilmesau / Wilamowice were allowed to stay by the Polish government because they were not of German descent. However the local language was banned and the population faced linguistic Polonization until 1956.[3]

1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church

2.
Voivodeships of Poland
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A województwo is the highest-level administrative subdivision of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term województwo has been in use since the 14th century, the word województwo is also rendered as voivodeship or a variant spelling. The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999 and these replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975. Todays voivodeships are mostly named after historical and geographical regions, while prior to 1998 generally took their names from the cities on which they were centered. The new units range in area from under 10,000 km2 to over 35,000 km2, voivodeships are further divided into powiats and gminas, see Administrative divisions of Poland. Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode, the sejmik and the marshal. In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivodes offices are in a different city from those of the executive, Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below. The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the representative of the central government. The voivodes offices collectively are known as the urząd wojewódzki, the sejmik is elected every four years, at the same time as the local authorities at powiat and gmina level. It passes bylaws, including the development strategies and budget. It also elects the marszałek and other members of the executive, the marshals offices are collectively known as the urząd marszałkowski. According to 2014 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably, Administrative division of Poland between 1979 and 1998 included 49 voivodeships upheld after the establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 for another decade. This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of government reform acts of 1973–1975. In place of the administrative division, a new two-level administrative division was introduced. The three smallest voivodeships – Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź – had the status of municipal voivodeship. After World War II, the new division of the country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 voivodeships. The voivodeships in the east that had not been annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. The newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the new voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław and Olsztyn, two cities were granted voivodeship status, Warsaw and Łódź

3.
Silesian Voivodeship
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The Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province, is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia, with Katowice serving as its capital. The Voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Katowice, Częstochowa and Bielsko-Biała Voivodeships and it is the most densely populated voivodeship in Poland and within the area of 12,300 squared kilometres, there are almost 5 million inhabitants. It is also the largest urbanised area in Central and Eastern Europe, in relation to economy, over 13% of Poland’s Gross Domestic Product is generated here, making the Silesian Voivodeship one of the wealthiest provinces in the country. For the first time Silesian Voivodeship was appointed in Second Polish Republic and it had much wider range of power autonomy, than other contemporary Polish voivodeships and it covered all historical lands of Upper Silesia, which ended up in the Interwar period Poland. This Voivodeship did not include – as opposed to the present one – lands, after aggression of Nazi Germany, on 8 October 1939, Hitler published a decree About division and administration of Eastern Territories. A Silesian Province was created, with a seat in Breslau and it consisted of four districts, Kattowitz, Oppeln, Breslau and Liegnitz. However, according to Hitler’s dectee from 12 October 1939 about establishing General Government, Oppeln District – Lubinitz county and parts of Tschenstochau and Warthenau counties. After the War during 1945 -1950 there existed a Silesian Voivodeship, commonly known as Śląsko-Dąbrowskie Voivodeship, in 1950 Śląsko-Dąbrowskie Voivodeship was divided into Opole and Katowice Voivodeships. The latter one had borders similar to the borders of modern Silesian Voivodeship and it is also bordered by four other Polish voivodeships, those of Opole, Łódź, Świętokrzyskie, and Lesser Poland. The region includes the Silesian Upland in the centre and north-west, the southern border is formed by the Beskidy Mountains. The current administrative unit of Silesian Voivodeship is just a fraction of the historical Silesia which is within the borders of todays Poland, Other parts of todays Polish Silesia are administered as the Opole, the Lower Silesian Voivodeships and the Lubusz Voivodeship. On the other hand, a part of the current administrative unit of the Silesian Voivodeship is not part of historical Silesia. Silesian Voivodeship has the highest population density in the country, the regions considerable industrialisation gives it the lowest unemployment rate nationally. The Silesian region is the most industrialized and the most urbanized region in Poland, 78% of its live in towns. Both northern and southern part of the voivodeship is surrounded by a green belt, Bielsko-Biała is enveloped by the Beskidy Mountains which are popular with winter sports fans. It offers over 150 ski lifts and 200 kilometres of ski routes, more and more slopes are illuminated and equipped with artificial snow generators. Szczyrk, Brenna, Wisła and Ustroń are the most popular mountain resorts. Rock climbing sites can be found in Jura Krakowsko-Czestochowska, the ruins of castles forming the Eagle Nests Trail are a famous attraction of the region

4.
Powiat
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A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as county, a powiat is part of a larger unit, the voivodeship or province. A powiat is usually subdivided into gminas, major towns and cities, however, function as separate counties in their own right, without subdivision into gminas. They are termed city counties and have roughly the same status as county boroughs in the UK. The other type of powiats are termed land counties, as of 2008, there were 379 powiat-level entities,314 land counties, and 65 city counties. For a complete listing, see List of Polish counties. For tables of counties by voivodeship, see the articles on the individual voivodeships, the history of Polish powiats goes back to the second half of the 14th century. They remained the basic unit of organization in Poland, then in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Poland regained independence in 1918, the powiats were again the territorial units. Powiats were abolished in 1975 in favor of a number of voivodeships. This reform also created 16 larger voivodeships, legislative power within a powiat is vested in an elected council, while local executive power is vested in the starosta, who is elected by that council. The administrative offices headed by the starosta are called the starostwo, however, in city counties these institutions do not exist separately – their powers and functions are exercised by the city council, the directly elected mayor, and the city offices. In some cases a powiat has its seat outside its own territory, for example, Poznań County has its offices in Poznań, although Poznań is itself a city county, and is therefore not part of Poznań County. Powiats have relatively limited powers, since many local and regional matters are dealt with either at gmina or voivodeship level, the Polish the name of an county, in the administrative sense, consists of the word powiat followed by a masculine-gender adjective. In most cases, this is the formed from the name of the town or city where the county has its seat. Thus the county with its seat at the town of Kutno is named powiat kutnowski, if the name of the seat comprises a noun followed by an adjective, as in Maków Mazowiecki, the adjective will generally be formed from the noun only. There are also a few counties whose names are derived from the names of two towns, from the name of a city and an adjective, or a mountain range. There is more one way to render such names into English

5.
Bielsko County
–
Bielsko County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1,1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998 and its administrative seat is the city of Bielsko-Biała, although the city is not part of the county. The county contains three towns, Czechowice-Dziedzice,13 km north-west of Bielsko-Biała, Szczyrk,14 km south of Bielsko-Biała, the county covers an area of 457.23 square kilometres. As of 2006 its total population is 150,764, out of which the population of Czechowice-Dziedzice is 34,811, that of Szczyrk is 5,860, that of Wilamowice is 2,818, the county is subdivided into 10 gminas. These are listed in the table, in descending order of population. Cieszyn Silesia Euroregion Cieszyn Silesia Polish official population figures 2006

6.
Gmina
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The gmina is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a commune or municipality. As of 2010 there were 2,478 gminy throughout the country, the word gmina derives from the German word Gemeinde, meaning community. The gmina has been the unit of territorial division in Poland since 1974. Some rural gminy have their seat in a town which is outside the gminas division, for example, the rural Gmina Augustów is administered from the town of Augustów, but does not include the town, as Augustów is an urban type gmina in its own right. The legislative and controlling body of each gmina is the municipal council, or in a town. A gmina may create auxiliary units, which play an administrative role. In rural areas these are called sołectwa, in towns they may be dzielnice or osiedla and in an urban-rural gmina, for a complete listing of all the gminy in Poland, see List of Polish gminas. Each gmina carries out two types of tasks, its own tasks and commissioned ones, own tasks are public tasks exercised by self-government, which serve to satisfy the needs of the community. Commissioned tasks cover the remaining public tasks resulting from legitimate needs of the state, the tasks are handed over on the basis of statutory by-laws, charters and regulations, or by way of agreements between the self-government units and central-government administration. Official report from the Central Statistical Office of Poland dated January 1,2006

7.
Gmina Wilamowice
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Gmina Wilamowice is an urban-rural gmina in Bielsko County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the town of Wilamowice, which lies approximately 12 kilometres north-east of Bielsko-Biała and 39 km south of the regional capital Katowice and it is known for the Wymysorys language, which is spoken by some of the people here. The gmina covers an area of 56.72 square kilometres, apart from the town of Wilamowice, Gmina Wilamowice contains the villages and settlements of Dankowice, Hecznarowice, Pisarzowice, Stara Wieś and Zasole Bielańskie. Gmina Wilamowice is bordered by the city of Bielsko-Biała and by the gminas of Bestwina, Brzeszcze, Kęty, Kozy and Miedźna

8.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form

9.
Town
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A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a town varies considerably in different parts of the world, the word town shares an origin with the German word Zaun, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the meaning of the word. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom, in English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, in Old Norse tun means a place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian. If there was any distinction between toun and burgh as claimed by some, it did not last in practice as burghs, for example, Edina Burgh or Edinburgh was built around a fort and eventually came to have a defensive wall. In some cases, town is a name for city or village. Sometimes, the town is short for township. A places population size is not a determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, as in India at least until recent times, in the United Kingdom, there are historical cities that are far smaller than the larger towns. Some forms of settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural. Towns often exist as governmental units, with legally defined borders. In the United States these are referred to as incorporated towns, in other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be unincorporated. Note that the existence of a town may be legally set forth through other means. In the case of planned communities, the town exists legally in the form of covenants on the properties within the town. Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on their age, although there is no official use of the term for any settlement. In Albanian qytezë means small city or new city, while in ancient times small residential center within the walls of a castle

10.
Endangered language
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An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or shift to speaking another language. Language loss occurs when the language has no native speakers. If eventually no one speaks the language at all, it becomes an extinct language, a dead language may still be observed and studied through recordings or written text, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. More-commonly spoken languages dominate the less-commonly spoken languages and so the latter eventually disappear, the total number of languages in the world is not known. Estimates vary depending on many factors, the general consensus is that there are between 6000 and 7000 languages currently spoken, and that between 50 and 90% of them will have become extinct by 2100. To recognize an endangered languages, the stages of language extinction follow five steps, the first step is potential endangerment. This is when a language faces endangerment, but there are still a few speakers who are keeping the language current, once a language has reached the endangerment stage, there are only a few speakers left, risking the chances of the language surviving much longer. The third stage of language extinction is seriously endangered, during this stage, a language is unlikely to survive another generation and will soon be extinct. The fourth stage is moribund, followed by the fifth stage extinction, UNESCO operates with four levels of language endangerment beyond safe, based on intergenerational transfer, vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered, and critically endangered. Using an alternative scheme of classification, linguist Michael E, There is a general consensus that the loss of languages harms the cultural diversity of the world. Many projects are under way aimed at preventing or slowing this loss by revitalizing endangered languages and promoting education, across the world, many countries have enacted specific legislation aimed at protecting and stabilizing the language of indigenous speech communities. A few linguists have argued that loss is a natural process that should not be counteracted. The total number of languages in the world is not known. Estimates vary depending on the extent and means of the research undertaken, and the definition of a distinct language, the number of known languages varies over time as some of them become extinct and others are newly discovered. An accurate amount of languages in the world was not yet known until the use of universal, the majority of linguists in the early twentieth century refrained from making estimates. Before then, estimates were frequently the product of guesswork and very low, one of the most active research agencies is SIL International, which maintains a database, Ethnologue, kept up to date by the contributions of linguists globally. Ethnologues 2005 count of languages in its database, excluding duplicates in different countries, was 6,912, of which 32. 8% were in Asia and this contemporary tally must be regarded as a variable number within a range. Areas with a large number of languages that are nearing extinction include, Eastern Siberia, Central Siberia, Northern Australia, Central America

11.
Communism
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Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence movements

12.
First Mongol invasion of Poland
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The first invasions intention was to secure the flank of the main Mongolian army attacking the Kingdom of Hungary. The Mongols neutralized any potential help to King Bela being provided by the Poles, the Mongols invaded Europe with three armies. One of the three armies was tasked with distracting Poland, before joining the main Mongol force invading Hungary and that army, under Baidar, Kadan and Orda Khan, began scouting operations in late 1240. Mongol tumen, moving from recently conquered Volodymyr-Volynskyi in Kievan Rus, first sacked Lublin, around this time, their forces split. Ordas forces devastated central Poland, moving to Wolbórz and as far north as Łęczyca, before turning south and heading via Sieradz towards Wrocław. Baidar and Kadan ravaged the southern part of Poland, moving to Chmielnik, Kraków, Bytom, Opole and finally, Legnica, before leaving Polish lands heading west and south. Baidar and Kadan on 13 February defeated a Polish army under the voivode of Kraków, Włodzimierz, on 18 March they defeated another Polish army with units from Kraków and Sandomierz at the battle of Chmielnik. Panic spread through the Polish lands, and the citizens abandoned Kraków, in the meantime, one of the most powerful contemporary Dukes of Poland, and Duke of Silesia, Henry II the Pious, gathered his forces and allies around Legnica. Henry, in order to more forces, even sacrificed one of the largest towns of Silesia, Wrocław. Henry was also waiting for Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, his brother-in-law, while considering whether to besiege Wrocław, Baidar and Kadan received reports that the Bohemians were days away with a large army. The Mongols turned from Wrocław, not finishing the siege, in order to intercept Henrys forces before the European armies could meet, the Mongols caught up with Henry near Legnica at Legnickie Pole, known in German as Wahlstatt. Henry, despite having rough parity in numbers and a strategy, was defeated at Legnica on April 9 after the Mongols caused confusion in the Polish forces. The Mongols did not take Legnica castle, but had a free rein to pillage and plunder Silesia, the Mongols avoided the Bohemian forces, but defeated the Hungarians in the Battle of Mohi. There were also later, larger Mongol invasions of Poland, in 1254 or 1255, Daniel of Galicia revolted against the Mongol rule. He repelled the initial Mongol assault under Ordas son Quremsa, in 1259, the Mongols returned under the new command of Burundai. According to some sources, Daniel fled to Poland leaving his son and he may have hidden in the castle of Galicia instead. The Mongols needed to secure Polands aid to Daniel and war booty to feed the demand of their soldiers, lithuanians also attacked Smolensk and menaced Torzhok, tributaries of the Golden Horde, in c. The Mongols sent an expedition into Lithuania for this

13.
Flanders
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Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium, although there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, language, politics and history. It is one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, the demonym associated with Flanders is Fleming, while the corresponding adjective is Flemish. The official capital of Flanders is Brussels, although Brussels itself has an independent regional government, in historical contexts, Flanders originally refers to the County of Flanders, which around AD1000 stretched from the Strait of Dover to the Scheldt estuary. In accordance with late 20th century Belgian state reforms the area was made two political entities, the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. These entities were merged, although geographically the Flemish Community, which has a cultural mandate, covers Brussels. Flanders has figured prominently in European history, as a consequence, a very sophisticated culture developed, with impressive achievements in the arts and architecture, rivaling those of northern Italy. Belgium was one of the centres of the 19th century industrial revolution, geographically, Flanders is generally flat, and has a small section of coast on the North Sea. Much of Flanders is agriculturally fertile and densely populated, with a density of almost 500 people per square kilometer. It touches France to the west near the coast, and borders the Netherlands to the north and east, the Brussels Capital Region is an enclave within the Flemish Region. Flanders has exclaves of its own, Voeren in the east is between Wallonia and the Netherlands and Baarle-Hertog in the consists of 22 exclaves surrounded by the Netherlands. It comprises 6.5 million Belgians who consider Dutch to be their mother tongue, the political subdivisions of Belgium, the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community. The first does not comprise Brussels, whereas the latter does comprise the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels, the political institutions that govern both subdivisions, the operative body Flemish Government and the legislative organ Flemish Parliament. The two westernmost provinces of the Flemish Region, West Flanders and East Flanders, forming the central portion of the historic County of Flanders, a feudal territory that existed from the 8th century until its absorption by the French First Republic. Until the 1600s, this county also extended over parts of France, one of the regions conquered by the French in Flanders, namely French Flanders in the Nord department. French Flanders can be divided into two regions, Walloon Flanders and Maritime Flanders. The first region was predominantly French-speaking already in the 1600s, the latter became so in the 20th century, the city of Lille identifies itself as Flemish, and this is reflected, for instance, in the name of its local railway station TGV Lille Flandres. The region conquered by the Dutch Republic in Flanders, now part of the Dutch province of Zeeland, the significance of the County of Flanders and its counts eroded through time, but the designation remained in a very broad sense. In the Early modern period, the term Flanders was associated with the part of the Low Countries

14.
Friesland
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Friesland or Frisia is a province in the northwest of the Netherlands. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, in 2010, the province had a population of 646,000 and a total area of 5,749 km2. The capital and seat of the government is the city of Leeuwarden. Since 2017, Arno Brok is the Kings Commissioner in the province, a coalition of the Labour Party, the Christian Democratic Appeal, and the Frisian National Party forms the executive branch. The province is divided into 24 municipalities, the area of the province was once part of the ancient, larger region of Frisia. The official languages of Friesland are West Lauwers Frisian and Dutch, a proto-Frisian culture slowly began to emerge around 400–200 BC known for its artificial dwelling hills as a defence against the sea. The Roman claim on Frisia began in 12 BC with the campaign of Nero Claudius Drusus in Germania, after a series of costly battles against the Frisians, the Romans were suddenly sworn fealty. The de facto independence they later enjoyed as a Roman vassal shows that this might have been a mostly diplomatic decision based on the temporary favourable bargaining position. Together with other Germanic tribes such as the Salians and the Batavii they managed to keep the north of the Lower Rhine mostly free from Roman influence. The early eighth-century AD is known for the Frisian Kingdom, king Redbad, after incorporation into the Frankish empire, Friesland was divided into three parts. The westernmost part developed at the start of the second millennium into the County of Holland, while the remainder of Frisia had no feudal overlord and that ended when Charles V added Frisia to the Habsburg Netherlands as Lordship of Frisia. Under Napoleon, the department was named Frise, after Napoleon was defeated in 1813, the department became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Friesland. Friesland is the largest province of the Netherlands if one includes areas of water, in terms of land area only, the provinces highest point is at 45 metres above sea level, on the island of Vlieland. There are four parks, Schiermonnikoog, De Alde Feanen, Lauwersmeer. The ten urban areas in Friesland with the largest population are, The province is divided into 24 municipalities, the province of Friesland has an oceanic climate. In 2010, Friesland had a population of 646,305, the years 1880–1900 show slower population growth due to a farm crisis in which 20,000 Frisians emigrated to the United States of America. Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland has been renowned for the height of its inhabitants. Friesland is mainly an agricultural province, the black and white Frisian cattle, black and white Stabyhoun and the black Frisian horse originated here

15.
Holland
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Holland is a region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. The name Holland is also used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the Counts of Holland. By the 17th century, Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, the name Holland first appeared in sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By this time, the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as Hollanders, Holland is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland. This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, a popular folk etymology holds that Holland is derived from hol land and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland. The proper name of the area in both Dutch and English is Holland, Holland is a part of the Netherlands. Holland is informally used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, the people of Holland are referred to as Hollanders in both Dutch and English. Today this refers specifically to people from the current provinces of North Holland, strictly speaking, the term Hollanders does not refer to people from the other provinces in the Netherlands, but colloquially Hollanders is sometimes used in this wider sense. In Dutch, the Dutch word Hollands is the form for Holland. In English, Dutch refers to the Netherlands as a whole, the word Hollandish is no longer in common use. Hollandic is the name give to the dialect spoken in Holland, and is occasionally also used by historians. Initially, Holland was a corner of the Holy Roman Empire. Gradually, its importance increased until it began to have a decisive. Until the start of the 12th century, the inhabitants of the area that became Holland were known as Frisians, the area was initially part of Frisia. At the end of the 9th century, West-Frisia became a county in the Holy Roman Empire. The first Count known about with certainty was Dirk I, who ruled from 896 to 931 and he was succeeded by a long line of counts in the House of Holland. When John I, count of Holland, died childless in 1299, by the time of William V the count of Holland was also the count of Hainaut and Zealand

16.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses

17.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

18.
Ostsiedlung
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The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia in the south to Estonia in the north, and extended into Transylvania in the southeast. In part, Ostsiedlung followed the expansion of the Empire. German historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often exaggerated the importance of the adoption of Salic law and settlement in Central, thus Ostsiedlung is part of a process termed Ostkolonisation or Hochmittelalterlicher Landesausbau, although these terms are sometimes used synonymously. Ethnic conflicts erupted between the newly arrived settlers and local populations and expulsions of native populations are known of. In several areas subject to the Ostsiedlung, the population was later discriminated against. Central Europe underwent dramatic changes after the Migration period of 300 to 700 CE, the Roman Empire had lost its dominant position. The Franks had created an empire that, besides former Roman Gallia, had united the former West Germanic tribes, East Francia, an early predecessor of Germany, aimed to be the successor to the Christian Western Roman Empire, and developed into the Holy Roman Empire. In Scandinavia, the former North Germanic tribes entered the Viking Age, affecting the whole of Europe through trade, some former East Germanic tribes had entered and merged into Rome, their own culture ceasing to exist. The Slavs living within the reach of the Frankish Empire were collectively called Wends and they seldom formed larger political entities, but rather constituted various small tribes, dwelling as far west as to a line from the Eastern Alps and Bohemia to the Saale and Elbe rivers. As the Frankish Empire expanded, various Wendish tribes were conquered or allied with the Franks, such as the Obodrites, the conquered Wendish areas were organized by the Franks into marches, which were administered by an entrusted noble who collected the tribute, reinforced by military units. The establishing of marches was also accompanied by missionary efforts, Frankish kings initiated numerous, yet not always successful, military campaigns to maintain their authority. Weakened by ongoing conflicts and constant warfare, the independent Wendish territories finally lost the capacity to provide effective military resistance. From 1119 to 1123, Pomerania invaded and subdued the northeastern parts of the Liutizian lands, in 1124 and 1128, the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw I, at that time a vassal of Poland, invited bishop Otto von Bamberg to Christianize the Pomeranians and Liutizians of his duchy. In 1147, as a campaign of the Northern Crusade, the Wendish Crusade was mounted in the Duchy of Saxony to retake the marches lost in 983, the crusaders also headed for Pomeranian Demmin and Stettin, despite these areas having already been successfully Christianized. The Havelberg bishopric was set up again to Christianize the Wends, after Henry the Lion lost an internal struggle with Emperor Frederick I, Mecklenburg and Pomerania became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1181. Terra Mariana was the name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia which was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade in the territories comprising present day Estonia and Latvia. It was established on February 2,1207 as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, the nominal head of Terra Mariana as well as the city of Riga was the Archbishop of Riga as the apex of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In 1561, during the Livonian war, Terra Mariana ceased to exist, the island of Saaremaa became part of Denmark

19.
Deacon
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Deacon is a ministry in Christian Churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. In many traditions the diaconate, the term for an office, is a clerical office. The word deacon is derived from the Greek word diákonos, which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning servant, waiting-man, minister, or messenger. One commonly promulgated speculation as to its etymology is that it literally means through the dust, female deacons are mentioned by Pliny the Younger in a letter to the emperor Trajan dated c. The title deaconess is not found in the Bible, however, a woman, Phoebe, is mentioned at Romans 16, 1–2 as a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. Nothing more specific is said about her duties or authority, the exact relationship between male and female deacons varies. A biblical description of the qualities required of a deacon, and of his household, can be found in 1 Timothy 3, prominent historical figures who played major roles as deacons and went on to higher office include Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Thomas Becket and Reginald Pole. On June 8, A. D.536 a serving Roman deacon was raised to Pope and his father, Pope Agapetus, had died and the office had been vacant for over a month. The title is used for the president, chairperson, or head of a trades guild in Scotland. The diaconate is one of the orders in the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox. The other major orders are those of bishop and presbyter, the diaconate continued in a vestigial form as a temporary, final step along the course toward ordination to priesthood. In Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches, deacons assist priests in their pastoral and administrative duties and they have a distinctive role in the liturgy of the Eastern and Western Churches. In the Eastern Church, deacons have a profound presence in the Divine Liturgy. In the Western Church, Pope St. Today, deacons are also granted permission to preach, beginning around the fifth century, there was a gradual decline in the permanent diaconate in the Latin church. It has however remained a part of the Eastern Catholic Churches. These men are known as permanent deacons in contrast to those continuing their formation, there is no sacramental or canonical difference between the two, however, as there is only one order of deacons. The permanent diaconate formation period in the Roman Catholic Church varies from diocese to diocese as it is determined by the local ordinary, although they are assigned to work in a parish by the diocesan bishop, once assigned, deacons are under the supervision of the parish pastor. Unlike most clerics, permanent deacons who also have a profession have no right to receive a salary for their ministry

20.
Castellan
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A castellan was the governor or captain of a castellany and its castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum castle, sometimes also known as a constable, governor of the castle district or captain, the Constable of the Tower of London is, in fact, a form of castellan. A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1194, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, many tribes migrated into western Europe, causing strife and war. The answer to recurrent invasion was to create fortified areas which evolved into castles, some leaders gained control of several areas, each with a castle. The problem lay in exerting control and authority in each area when a leader could only be in one place at a time. To answer this, lords gave their trusted vassals direct control of a castle and this changed as kings grew in power and as the Holy Roman emperors replaced recalcitrant vassals with ministerials. Usually the duties of a castellan were combined with the duties of a majordomo and this made the castellan responsible for a castles domestic staff and its garrison, as well as a military administrator responsible for maintaining defenses and protecting the castles lands. This was particularly the case if there was no lord resident at the castle, one unusual responsibility in western Europe concerned jurisdiction over the resident Jewish communities near the English Channel. The Constable of the Tower of London and those castellans subordinate to the dukes of Normandy were responsible for their administration, in France, castellans who governed castles without resident nobles acquired considerable powers, and the position actually became a hereditary fiefdom. In Germany the castellan was known as a Burgmann, or sometimes Hauptmann, the burgmann may have been either a free noble or a ministerialis, but either way administered the castle as a vassal. A ministerialis, being wholly indebted to a lord, was easily controlled. Ministeriales replaced free nobles as castellans of Hohensalzburg under Conrad I of Abensberg’s tenure as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1106 to 1147, in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary usually was called várnagy, and in the Latin charts it appeared as castellanus. The lord of the castle had similar functions than the German ones. In Hungary first the King, later the most powerful noblemen designed the castellans between their followers for the administration of their castles and the states that belonged to the fortress, at times, there was a castellan among the Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, starting with Anselm. Lectures on the Statutes of the Sacred Order of St. John of Jerusalem, in the Kingdom of Poland and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the castellans were in most cases lower in precedence to the voivodes. Castellans in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were of senator rank, in Portugal, a castellan was known as alcaide. Later, the role of alcaide became a title awarded by the King of Portugal to certain nobles. As the honorary holder of the office of alcaide did not often live near its castle, an honorary holder of the office became known as alcaide-mor and its delegate became known as alcaide pequeno or alcaide-menor

21.
Lesser Poland
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Lesser Poland is a historical region of Poland, its capital is the city of Kraków. It should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, historical Lesser Poland is much bigger than the current voivodeship which bears its name, stretching from Bielsko-Biała in the south-west as far as to Siedlce in the north-east. It consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Kraków, Sandomierz and Lublin and it is almost 60,000 km2 in area and has about 9,000,000 inhabitants. Its landscape is hilly, with Karpaty mountains in the south. It has been famous for its mighty aristocracy and rich nobility, in the wider sense, Lesser Poland from the 14th century also encompassed Red Ruthenia, and from the 16th century Podlachia, Podolia and parts of modern Ukraine. In the era of partitions, its part was Galicia, was sometimes also called Lesser Poland. As a result of this division, many inhabitants of the northern part of the pre-partition region of Poland dont recognize their Lesser Polish identity. Although, Lublin has been declared independent Voivodeship as early as in 1474, flat are northern and central areas of the province – around Tarnobrzeg, Stalowa Wola, Radom and Siedlce, also valleys of the main rivers – the Vistula, the Pilica, and the San. Apart from Rysy, there are other peaks located in the province – Pilsko, Babia Góra, Turbacz. Southern part of the province is covered by the Carpathian Mountains, which are made of smaller ranges, such as Pieniny, Tatry, almost whole area is located in the Vistula Basin, with the exception of western and southern parts, belonging to the Odra and Dunaj Basins. Main rivers of the province are the Vistula, upper Warta, Soła, Skawa, Raba, Dunajec, Wisłok, Wisłoka, San, Wieprz, Przemsza, Nida, Kamienna, Radomka, and Pilica. Major lakes of the province are, Lake Rożnów, Lake Czchów, Lake Dobczyce, Lake Czorsztyn, Lake Czaniec, Lake Międzybrodzie, Lake Klimkówka, most of them are man-made reservoirs. Lesser Poland stretches from the Carpathians in the south to Pilica and it borders Mazovia to the north, Podlaskie to the northeast, Red Ruthenia to the east, Slovakia to the south, Silesia to the west, and Greater Poland to the northwest. In Silesian Voivodeship, the border between Silesia and Lesser Poland is easy to draw, because with few exceptions, it goes along boundaries of local counties. In the south, it goes along western boundary of ancient Duchy of Teschen, with the borderline along the Biała river, where Zwardoń, Milówka, and Rajcza are in Lesser Poland. Bielsko-Biała is a city made of two parts – Lesser Polands Biala, makes eastern half of the city, and only in 1951 it merged with Silesian Bielsko. Further north, the border goes along boundaries of cities of Jaworzno. Then it goes northwest, leaving Czeladź, Siewierz, Koziegłowy, Blachownia, Kłobuck, from Krzepice, the border goes eastwards, towards Koniecpol, and along the Pilica river, with such towns as Przedborz, Opoczno, Drzewica, Białobrzegi, and Kozienice within Lesser Poland

22.
Casimir II the Just
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Casimir II the Just was a Lesser Polish Duke at Wiślica during 1166–1173, and at Sandomierz after 1173. The honorific title the Just was not contemporary and only appeared in the 16th century and its however also possible that he was born shortly after, and in consequence was posthumous. Maybe this was the reason that in the Bolesław IIIs Testament, he was omitted, during his first years, Casimir and his sister Agnes lived with their mother Salome in her widow land of Łęczyca. Salomea of Berg had died in 1144, Casimir and Agnes were cared by their elder brother Bolesław IV, who had assumed the high ducal title. Although under his tutelage the young prince could feel safe, he had no guarantee to receive part of the inheritance in the future. When in 1154 he reached the age to take control over the lands of the family. Even worse, three years later his fate was decided in the successfully Polish campaign of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who came to the aid of Władysław II and his sons. As a part of the treaty Bolesław had to conclude with Barbarossa, the fate of Casimir at the Imperial court is unknown. He returned to Poland certainly before 21 May 1161, because that day he is mentioned in a document with two of his brothers, Bolesław IV and Henry of Sandomierz, so far, Casimir had not received any lands from his elder brothers. The quick actions of Bolesław finally stopped the rebellion, at the end, Casimir was only able to retain Wiślica. In 1172, Mieszko III the Old rebelled against the High Duke, for unknown reasons, Casimir refused to participate. Bolesław IV died in 1173 and according to the principle of seniority he was succeeded by his brother Mieszko III the Old as High Duke. He decided to give the rest of the Sandomierz duchy to Casimir, then his only surviving brother, who finally could assume the ducal title, the strong and dictatorial rule of the new High Duke caused a deep disaffection among the Lesser Polish nobility. This time the new revolt prepared in 1177 had a chance of victory. The reasons about his inclusion in the revolt, after being reconciled with Mieszko, are unknown, finally, he was defeated and was forced to escape. After a successfully action in Silesia, he marched to Kraków, on the Baltic coast, Pomerelia was ruled by Duke Sambor I as a Polish vassal. However, Mieszko the Old worked intensively for his return, at first in Bohemia, later in Germany, to achieve his ambitions to give the hereditary right to the throne at Kraków to his descendants, Casimir called an assembly of Polish nobles at Łęczyca in 1180. He granted privileges to both the nobility and the Church, lifting a tax on the profits of the clergy and relinquishing his rights over the lands of deceased bishops

23.
Mieszko I Tanglefoot
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Mieszko I Tanglefoot was a Duke of Silesia from 1163 to 1173, Duke of Racibórz from 1173, Duke of Opole from 1202 and from 9 June 1210 until his death, Duke of Kraków and High Duke of Poland. He was the son of Władysław II the Exile by his wife Agnes of Babenberg, daughter of Margrave Leopold III of Austria. His nickname Tanglefoot appeared in the chronicles of the 14th and 15th centuries. By the year 1192 the following was written, Cracovia civitas est devastate a Mescone loripede dicto Platonogi nepote ducis Kazimiriensis Filio Wladislai exulis and this is the oldest preserved record of the Mieszkos nickname in the form of Plątonogi. During his time in exile, Mieszko studied in Michaelsberg and Bamberg, however, the supposed temporary exile was, for the deposed High Duke, for good, he died in Altenburg in 1159. Mieszko and Bolesław I the Tall co-ruled the Duchy of Wrocław during the period 1163–1173, at first, their rule did not extend over the major Silesian cities, which remained under the control of Bolesław IV the Curly, the current High Duke of Poland. The brothers retook them in the year 1165, taking advantage of Bolesław IVs involvement in a crusade against the Prussians, the rebellion was a complete surprise to Bolesław, who was forced to escape to Erfurt, Germany. However, the intervention of the Emperor favored the return of Bolesław soon afterwards, Mieszko III the Old found himself in exile in Racibórz and it seemed that the war between Mieszko Tanglefoot and Casimir II the Just was now just a matter of time. Casimir II, however, went a different route and, in order to gain the favor of the Duke of Racibórz given him the towns of Oświęcim, in 1195 Mieszko and his nephew Jarosław supported Mieszko III the Old in his new attempt to recover Kraków and the Seniorate. The death of Casimir II the Just and the minority of his sons had given them the opportunity to attack, however, Kraków and the nobility of Sandomierz, led by the voivode Nicholas, had other plans and decided to support Casimir IIs eldest son, Leszek the White. Both sides clashed in the bloody Battle of Mozgawa near Jędrzejów, the Silesian troops, led by Mieszko and Jarosław, arrived to the battlefield too late, soon after Mieszko III withdrew to Kalisz. On 22 March 1201 Jarosław of Opole died, the Duchy of Opole was then inherited by his father Bolesław the Tall, with whom the late Duke was recently reconciled. Bolesław the Tall died only nine months later, on 7/8 December 1201, Mieszko was determined to obtain Opole and made a surprise attack at the beginning of 1202. The Duke managed to obtain Opole, which was then on definitely joined to his lands. Despite this victory, Mieszko wanted more lands, but this was against the wishes of the Church, on 9 June 1210 a Bull was decreed by Pope Innocent III, under which all the Seniorate rulers were excommunicated and deposed. Strangely, in the Bull the unnamed Duke of Silesia was exempted from the ban, the country was full of consternation, because nobody knew who had real power. Henry Ketlicz – who had returned from some time before – decided to call the Synod of Borzykowa. At the convention, in addition to the Hierarchy of the Church, Henry I, Leszek the White, wanting to ensure the support of the Church, along with other Piast princes, then gave a Great Privilege, which ensured the integrity of territorial possession of the Bishops

24.
History of Poland
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The history of Poland originates in the migrations of Slavs who established permanent settlements in the Polish lands during the Early Middle Ages. The first ruling dynasty, the Piasts, emerged by the 10th century AD, Duke Mieszko I is considered the de facto creator of the Polish state and is widely recognized for the widespread adoption of Western Christianity that followed his baptism in 966. The duchy of Poland that Mieszko ruled was formally reconstituted as a kingdom in 1025 by his son Bolesław I Chrobry. In its early phases, the Commonwealth was able to sustain the levels of prosperity achieved during the Jagiellonian period through its development of a sophisticated noble democracy. From the mid-17th century, however, the state entered a period of decline caused by devastating wars. From 1795 until 1918, no truly independent Polish state existed, the opportunity to regain independence only materialized after World War I, when the three partitioning imperial powers were fatally weakened in the wake of war and revolution. Millions of Polish citizens perished in the course of the Nazi occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945 as Germany classified ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Jews and Romani as subhuman. This process resulted in the creation of the modern Polish state, members of the Homo genus have lived in north Central Europe for thousands of years since the last periods of prehistoric glaciation. The Neolithic period ushered in the Linear Pottery culture, whose founders migrated from the Danube River area beginning about 5,500 BC and this culture was distinguished by the establishment of the first settled agricultural communities in modern Polish territory. Later, between about 4,400 and 2,000 BC, the native post-Mesolithic populations would also adopt, Polands Early Bronze Age began around 2300–2400 BC, whereas its Iron Age commenced c. One of the cultures that have been uncovered, the Lusatian culture, spanned the Bronze and Iron Ages. Around 400 BC, Poland was settled by Celts of the La Tène culture and they were soon followed by emerging cultures with a strong Germanic component, influenced first by the Celts and then by the Roman Empire. The Germanic peoples migrated out of the area by about 500 AD during the great Migration Period of the European Dark Ages, wooded regions to the north and east were settled by Balts. According to mainstream archaeological research, Slavs have resided in modern Polish territories for over 1500 years, in the 9th and 10th centuries, these tribes gave rise to developed regions along the upper Vistula, the coast of the Baltic Sea and in Greater Poland. This latest tribal undertaking resulted in the formation of a political structure in the 10th century that became the state of Poland. Poland was established as a state under the Piast dynasty. Historical records of an official Polish state begin with Duke Mieszko I in the half of the 10th century. This event has become known as the baptism of Poland, Mieszko completed a unification of the West Slavic tribal lands that was fundamental to the new countrys existence

25.
Silesian Piasts
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The Silesian Piasts were the elder of four lines of the Polish Piast dynasty beginning with Władysław II the Exile, eldest son of Duke Bolesław III of Poland. By Bolesławs testament, Władysław was granted Silesia as his hereditary province, the history of the Silesian Piasts began with the feudal fragmentation of Poland in 1138 following the death of the Polish duke Bolesław III Wrymouth. Władysław soon entered into conflicts with his brothers and the Polish nobility. When in 1146 he attempted to control of the whole of Poland, he was excomunicated by Archbishop Jakub ze Żnina of Gniezno. He was received by King Conrad III of Germany, his brother-in-law by Władysławs consort Agnes of Babenberg, Silesia and the Seniorate Province came under the control of second-born Bolesław IV the Curly, Duke of Masovia. In the same year King Conrad III attempted to power for Władysław. He died in 1159 without returning to Poland, the Duchy of Silesia remained within the Polish seniorate constitution, but Władysławs sons were obliged to pay a yearly tribute to the Holy Roman Emperor. Mieszko Tanglefoot the smaller Duchy of Racibórz around Racibórz and Cieszyn and their minor brother Konrad Spindleshanks received Żagań, Głogów and Krosno from the hands of Bolesław the Tall. In the same year, Poland abolished the seniorate and the Silesian duchies became independent entities, Henry I the Bearded actively took part in the inner-Polish conflicts and expanded his dominion with determination. Henry, before securing in 1229 the sovereignty in Kraków, had no less persevering efforts to bring Greater Poland also under his dominion. From the beginning of the century he had not ceased to intervene in the disputes which were carried on between the descendants of Mieszko the Old. At last in 1234, a half of that province was formally ceded to him. As a guardian of minor dukes, Henry moreover ruled over Opole and this Silesian prince not only intended to enlarge his possessions, he proposed to make them the nucleus of a restored Kingdom of Poland. He became duke of Kraków in 1232, which gave him the title of the Senior Duke of Poland, Henry expanded his realm also outside Poland ruling over Barnim, Teltow as well as parts of Lower Lusatia. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, he never gained the Polish crown, the royal crown, almost forgotten since the fall of Bolesław II, was destined by him for his eldest son, whom he associated in his rule towards the end of his life. This Henry II the Pious, who succeeded his father in 1238, was, in fact, pursuing the very able policy of Henry the Bearded, his son was moreover able to obtain the support of the clergy, with whom his father had had frequent disagreements. Following an old tradition of his dynasty, he placed himself under the protection of the Holy See, in 1241, he died as a Christian hero in the Battle of Legnica, in which he was attempting to arrest the Mongolian invasion. His death left the Silesian Piast dynasty deeply shaken, after Henrys death in 1241 his brother Bolesław II ruled on behalf of his underage brothers

26.
Fief
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The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure, these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade. In ancient Rome a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered, originally, in medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service continued to be called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below. The most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch that it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. When land replaced currency as the store of value, the Germanic word *fehu-ôd replaced the Latin word beneficium. This Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the nineteenth century, a theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis that the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, a theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, Samarrai, however, also advises medieval and early modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically fanciful roots in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin. It lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century, in English usage, the word fee is first attested around 1250–1300, the word fief from around 1605–15. In French, the fief is found from the middle of the 13th century. In French, one also finds seigneurie, which rise to the expression seigneurial system to describe feudalism. Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings, by the middle of the 10th century, fee had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord, historically, the fees of the 11th and the 12th century derived from two separate sources. The first was land carved out of the estates of the upper nobility, the second source was allodial land transformed into dependent tenures. The process occurred later in Germany, and was going on in the 13th century. In England, Henry II transformed them into important sources of royal income, the discontent of barons with royal claims to arbitrarily assessed reliefs and other feudal payments under Henrys son King John resulted in Magna Carta of 1215

27.
Kingdom of Bohemia
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The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, the kings of Bohemia, besides Bohemia ruled also the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which at various times included Moravia, Silesia and parts of Saxony, Brandenburg and Bavaria. Numerous kings of Bohemia were also elected Holy Roman Emperors and the capital Prague was the seat in the late 14th century. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the became part of the Habsburg Austrian Empire. The Czech language was the language of the Diet and the nobility until 1627. German was then formally made equal with Czech and eventually prevailed as the language of the Diet until the Czech national revival in the 19th century. German was also used as the language of administration in many towns after Germans immigrated and populated some areas of the country in the 13th century. The royal court used the Czech, Latin, and German languages, depending on the ruler, following the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, both the Kingdom and Empire were dissolved. Bohemia became the part of the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic. In 1204 Ottokars royal status was accepted by Otto IV as well as by Pope Innocent III and it was officially recognized in 1212 by the Golden Bull of Sicily issued by Emperor Frederick II, elevating the Duchy of Bohemia to Kingdom status. Under these terms, the Czech king was to be exempt from all obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the imperial councils. The imperial prerogative to ratify each Bohemian ruler and to appoint the bishop of Prague was revoked, the kings successor was his son Wenceslaus I, from his second marriage. Corresponding with the Pope, she established the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star in 1233, four other military orders were present in Bohemia, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from c. 1160, the Order of Saint Lazarus from the late 12th century, 1200–1421, and the Knights Templar from 1232–1312. The 13th century was the most dynamic period of the Přemyslid reign over Bohemia, at the same time, the Mongol invasions absorbed the attention of Bohemias eastern neighbors, Hungary and Poland. Přemysl Ottokar II married a German princess, Margaret of Babenberg and he thereby acquired Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and part of Styria. He conquered the rest of Styria, most of Carinthia, and he was called the king of iron and gold. He campaigned as far as Prussia, where he defeated the natives and in 1256, founded a city he named Královec in Czech

28.
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
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The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, or simply the Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, including Poland proper. The kingdom has been dated back to c. 966, when Mieszko I and his pagan Slavic realm joined Christian Europe and his oldest son and successor, Prince Bolesław I Chrobry, Duke of Poland, became the first crowned King of Poland in 1025. The creation of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was a milestone in the evolution of Polish statehood and it represented the concept of the Polish kingdom as distinctly separate from the person of the monarch. A related concept that evolved soon afterward was that of Rzeczpospolita, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was also related to other symbols of Poland, such as the capital, the Polish coat of arms and the flag of Poland. The concept of the Crown also had a geographical aspects, particularly related to the indivisibility of the Polish - Crown -territory. It can be seen as a unit of administrative division. Parts formed part at the early Kingdom of Poland, then, at the same time, the Crown also referred to all lands that the Polish state could claim to have the right to rule over, including those that were not within Polish borders. The term distinguishes those territories federated with the Crown Grand Duchy of Lithuania from various fiefdom territories, such as the Duchy of Prussia and the Duchy of Courland. Prior to the 1569 Union of Lublin, Crown territories may be understood as those of Poland proper, inhabited by Poles, with the Union of Lublin, however, most of present-day Ukraine, passed onto Polish administration, thus becoming Crown territory. During that period, a term for a Pole from the Crown territory was koroniarz - or Crownlander in English - derived from Korona - the Crown and this often meant a distinction between persons loyal to the elected King and persons loyal to Polish magnate. Crown lands were divided into two provinces, Lesser Poland and Greater Poland and these were further divided into administrative units known as voivodeships. Royal Prussia included Pomerelia, Chełmno Land, Malbork Voivodeship, Gdańsk, Toruń, Polish historian Henryk Wisner writes that Royal Prussia belonged to the Province of Greater Poland. The towns affected were, Biała, Lubica, Wierzbów, Spiska Sobota, Poprad, Straże, Spiskie Włochy, Nowa Wieś, Spiska Nowa Wieś, Ruszkinowce, Wielka, Spiskie Podgrodzie, Maciejowce, Twarożne. Wenceslaus I sold the Duchy of Siewierz to the Archbishop of Kraków, Zbigniew Cardinal Oleśnicki, after that point it was considered to be associated with the Lesser Poland Province and was the only ecclesiastical duchy in Lesser Poland. In 1641 it became part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Duchy of Livonia was held as a condominium with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was held as a condominium with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, jan Herburt, Statuta Regni Poloniae, in ordinem alphabeti digesta, Cracoviae 1563. Jan Dąbrowski, Korona Królestwa Polskiego w XIV wieku, studium z dziejów rozwoju polskiej monarchii stanowej, stanisław Szczur, Historia Polski Średniowiecze, Wydawnictwo Literackie 2002, ISBN 83-08-03272-9

29.
Silesian County
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Silesian County was an administrative unit of both the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. With seats in the towns of Zator and Oświęcim, it was part of Kraków Voivodeship, the kings retained both ducal titles, and names of both duchies remained in common use. It existed for over 200 years, and was dissolved after the partition of Poland. The total area of Silesian County was 2600 sq. kilometers, and in the mid-17th century it had five towns, Wadowice, Żywiec, Kęty, Oświęcim and Zator

30.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations

31.
Bielsko-Biala
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Bielsko-Biała is a city in Southern Poland with the population of approx. The city is a centre of the approx,325,000 large Bielsko Urban Agglomeration and is a major industrial, transport and touristic hub. Neighbouring the Beskid Mountains to the south, Bielsko-Biała is composed of two cities on opposite banks of the Biała River, Silesian Bielsko and Lesser Polands Biała. Both city names, Bielsko and Biała refer to the Biała River, with etymology stemming from either biel or biała, the remnants of a fortified settlement in what is now the Stare Bielsko district of the city were discovered between 1933 and 1938 by a Polish archaeological team. The settlement was dated to the 12th - 14th centuries and its dwellers manufactured iron from ore and specialized in smithery. The current centre of the town was developed as early as the first half of the 13th century. At that time a castle was built on a hill, in the second half of the 13th century, the Piast dukes of Opole invited German settlers to colonize the Silesian Foothills. Nearby settlements in the mountains were Lobnitz and Bistrai, after the partition of the Duchy of Oppeln in 1281, Bielsko passed to the Dukes of Cieszyn. The town was first documented in 1312 when Duke Mieszko I of Cieszyn granted a town charter, the Biała again became a border river, when in 1315 the eastern Duchy of Oświęcim split off from Cieszyn as a separate under Mieszkos son Władysław. With Bohemia and the Upper Silesian Duchy of Cieszyn, Bielsko in 1526 was inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg, after the Prussian king Frederick the Great had invaded Silesia, Bielsko remained with the Habsburg Monarchy as part of Austrian Silesia according to the 1742 Treaty of Breslau. In late 1849 Bielsko became a seat of political district, in 1870 it became a statutory city. The opposite bank of the Biała River, again Polish since 1475, had sparsely settled since the mid-16th century. A locality was first mentioned in a 1564 deed, it received the name Biała in 1584 and its population increased during the Counter-Reformation in the Habsburg lands, when many Protestant artisans from Bielsko moved across the river. Though already named a town in the 17th century, Biała officially was granted city rights by the Polish king Augustus II the Strong in 1723. In the course of the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Biała was annexed by the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy, the Protestant citizens received the right to establish parishes according to the 1781 Patent of Toleration by Emperor Joseph II. BIALA was head of the district with the name, one of the 78 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in the Galicia crownland. With the dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918 according to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and its members smuggled military weapons, and waged a campaign of intimidating other members of the community to leave for Nazi Germany, with tangible incentives. A considerable number of young ethnic Germans joined the rank-and-file of the Party during the mid-1930s as a result of the Nazi indoctrination, during World War II the city was annexed by Nazi Germany

32.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

33.
First Partition of Poland
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The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. Growth in the Russian Empires power, threatening the Kingdom of Prussia, Frederick the Great engineered the partition to prevent Austria, jealous of Russian successes against the Ottoman Empire, from going to war. At that point Habsburg Austria started considering waging war against Russia and he was also interested in protecting the weakening Ottoman Empire, which could be advantageously utilized in the event of a Prussian war either with Russia or Austria. Fredericks brother, Prince Henry, spent the winter of 1770–71 as a representative of the Prussian court at Saint Petersburg, thus Frederick attempted to encourage Russia to direct its expansion towards weak and non-functional Poland instead of the Ottomans. Austrian statesman Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz counter-proposed that Prussia take lands from Poland in return for relinquishing Silesia to Austria, the recent Koliyivschyna peasant and Cossack uprising in Ukraine also weakened the Polish position. Under pressure from Prussia, which for a long time wanted to annex the northern Polish province of Royal Prussia, the Russians also withdrew from Moldavia away from the Austrian border. Already by 1769—71, both Austria and Prussia had taken over some territories of the Commonwealth, with Austria taking Szepes County in 1769–1770 and Prussia incorporating Lauenburg. On February 19,1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna, a previous agreement between Prussia and Russia had been made in Saint Petersburg on February 6,1772. Early in August, Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops simultaneously entered the Commonwealth, on August 5, the three parties signed the treaty on their respective territorial gains at the commonwealths expense. The regiments of the Bar Confederation, whose executive board had forced to leave Austria after Austria joined the Prusso-Russian alliance. In the end, the Bar Confederation was defeated, with its members either fleeing abroad or being deported to Siberia by the Russians, the partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on September 22,1772. It was a success for Frederick II of Prussia, Prussias share might have been the smallest. Prussia took most of Polish Royal Prussia, including Ermland, allowing Frederick to link East Prussia, Prussia also annexed northern areas of Greater Poland along the Noteć River, and northern Kuyavia, but not the cities of Danzig and Thorn. The territories annexed by Prussia became a new province in 1773 called West Prussia, overall, Prussia gained 36,000 km2 and about 600,000 people. According to Jerzy Surdykowski Frederick the Great soon introduced German colonists in territories he conquered and engaged in Germanization of Polish territories. Frederick II settled 26,000 Germans in Polish Pomerania which influenced the ethnic situation in the region that at the time had around 300,000 inhabitants, and enforced Germanization. According to Christopher Clark in certain areas annexed by Prussia like Notec, the new-gained territories connected Prussia with Germany proper, and were of major economic importance. By seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly cut off Poland from the sea, through levying enormous custom duties, Prussia accelerated the inevitable collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian state

34.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen

35.
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
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From 1804 to 1918 it was a crownland of the Austrian Empire. After the reforms of 1867, it became an ethnic Pole-administered autonomous unit under the Austrian crown, the country was carved from the entire south-western part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the many titles of the princes of Hungary was ruler of Galicia and Lodomeria. The name Galicia is the Latinized form of Halych, a principality of the medieval Ruthenia, Lodomeria, is also a Latinized form of Volodymyr-Volynsky that was founded in the 10th century by the Vladimir the Great and until the partitions of Poland was known simply as Volodymyr. King of Galicia and Lodomeria was a title that King of Hungary adopted during his conquest of the region back in the 12th century. This historical region in Eastern Europe is divided today between Poland and Ukraine, the nucleus of historic Galicia consists of the modern Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions of western Ukraine. In 1772, Galicia was the largest part of the area annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy in the First Partition of Poland. As such, the Austrian region of Poland and what was later to become Ukraine was known as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria to underline the Hungarian claims to the country. However, after the Third Partition of Poland, a portion of the ethnically Polish lands to the west was also added to the province. During the first decades of Austrian rule, Galicia was firmly governed from Vienna, the aristocracy was guaranteed its rights, but these rights were considerably circumscribed. The former serfs were no longer mere chattel, but became subjects of law and were granted personal freedoms. Their labour obligations were defined and limited, and they could bypass the lords, at the same time, however, the Austrian Empire extracted from Galicia considerable wealth and conscripted large numbers of the peasant population into its armed services. The 1820s and 1830s were a period of bureaucratic rule overseen from Vienna, most administrative positions were filled by German-speakers, including German-speaking Czechs, although some of their children were already becoming Polonized. After the failure of the November insurrection in Russian Poland in 1830–31, in which a few thousand Galician volunteers participated, the insurrection occurred in the western, Polish-populated part of Galicia. In the same period, a sense of national awakening began to develop among the Ruthenians in the part of Galicia. In 1837, the so-called Ruthenian Triad led by Markiian Shashkevych, published The Nymph of the Dniester, alarmed by such democratism, the Austrian authorities and the Greek Catholic Metropolitan banned the book. In 1848, revolutionary actions broke out in Vienna and other parts of the Austrian Empire, in Lemberg, a Polish National Council, and then later, a Ukrainian, or Ruthenian Supreme Council were formed. Even before Vienna had acted, the remnants of serfdom were abolished by the Governor, Franz Stadion, eventually, Lemberg was bombarded by imperial troops and the revolution put down completely

36.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

37.
Austria-Hungary
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The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and came into existence on 30 March 1867. Austria-Hungary consisted of two monarchies, and one region, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under the Hungarian crown. It was ruled by the House of Habsburg, and constituted the last phase in the evolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and the Hungarian states were co-equal, Foreign affairs and the military came under joint oversight, but all other governmental faculties were divided between respective states. Austria-Hungary was a state and one of the worlds great powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at 621,538 km2, the Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry of the world, after the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Austro-Hungarian military and civilian rule until it was annexed in 1908. The annexation of Bosnia also led to Islam being recognized as a state religion due to Bosnias Muslim population. Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I and it was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The realms full, official name was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council, each enjoyed considerable sovereignty with only a few joint affairs. Certain regions, such as Polish Galicia within Cisleithania and Croatia within Transleithania, enjoyed autonomous status, the division between Austria and Hungary was so marked that there was no common citizenship, one was either an Austrian citizen or a Hungarian citizen, never both. This also meant that there were always separate Austrian and Hungarian passports, however, neither Austrian nor Hungarian passports were used in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia. Instead, the Kingdom issued its own passports which were written in Croatian and French and it is not known what kind of passports were used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of both Austria and Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary had always maintained a separate parliament, the Diet of Hungary, the administration and government of the Kingdom of Hungary remained largely untouched by the government structure of the overarching Austrian Empire. Hungarys central government structures remained well separated from the Austrian imperial government, the country was governed by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary – located in Pressburg and later in Pest – and by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna. The Hungarian government and Hungarian parliament were suspended after the Hungarian revolution of 1848, despite Austria and Hungary sharing a common currency, they were fiscally sovereign and independent entities. Since the beginnings of the union, the government of the Kingdom of Hungary could preserve its separated. After the revolution of 1848–1849, the Hungarian budget was amalgamated with the Austrian, from 1527 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its own customs controls, which separated her from the other parts of the Habsburg-ruled territories